Daily Republican., 1887-01-03

There 10 row over one hundred mil.
Hon dollars In the United 6.ates Tres-
sasy which 10 not needed for the iDme-
diats wanna Of ths Government II Ii
called IN ovsrplus. and one Of the vsxed
Questlous In Congress 70 what 70 do
With " There u one way By vhich II
oau b Alsposed Of, and Two ways By
which u ~ b kept fron accamular
cling each year. II can b. dtspossd Of
~ spending It In coast dsisuoss and
ths ballding Of navy which the coun-
ny shsald have, not - . .nstter Of in
mediate, bat - . possible future nsces-
atty. Upon this disposltion Of the
safplus, however, there sssms to b. no
pseponderAting influence sulBcienk 10
carry It through Congress and PM IL
iato operation.
The surplus esp BE- reduced either BY
. reduction Of Inn port dusies on foreign
manufactured goods OF by an abolition
OF the taxes on domestic manufactured
Articles. The taxes on homo msnufAc-
tured liquors and ON tobacco amount
aaoh year to about tho bame sum ~ the
annual increase OF surplus revenue.
The surplus oan be reduced, In foot OBJ
liberated, BY either plan. bat which Of
them can bs Cd scted with the least dis.
turbance 10 the business OF the country
The reduction Of import duties has been
the leading question which has divided
she present Congress, the Democratic In
favor OF it generally and the Rspubli.
cans, with four or five exceptions, op-
posed to II. Twice have the Rspubli.
oAns. aided by SOME twenty Ave Demo
crAts, defeated the motion to take up
the Morrison tariff reduction bill for
confederation. It Is evident, then, that
the reduction Of the surplus cannot be
reAched In the present Congress by any
measure that will interiere with our
present system OF import duties
Then there 10 another way left by
which the surplus can be reduced. We
have already referred TO 1t in the reduc-
tlon OF duty on homo manufactured
spirits and tobacco. Being considered
the luxpf.es rather than the necessities
Of life, the old var tax still rem aims
upon them. By repeating these taxes
the surplus would stop, and instead OF
increasing and lying idle In the tfea.
sury 1t would be used In the channels
Of trade. This would put one hundred
million Of dollars inc circulation that
IL now locked up in the treasury
vaults.
But here comes along the moral re-
form sentiment OF the country, tina,
would rather increase than decrease the
taxes upon these articles OF domestic
manufacture upon the ground thai they
are luxuries and can bear taxation bet
ter than any other national industry
This sentiment wonld have whiskey
and tobacco taxed, not for the sake 0
raising revenue, but in the vain hop
that taxing them heavily would cripp.
tho ID An u tacture and use OF them. Tn
statistics Of the consumption OF distilled
spirits aud Of tobacco show that 1t ha
- steadily increased rs the population
has increased. Every body who want
liquor or tobacco for their wn use hav
no trouble in getting all they want
and We doubt very much whether th
consumption OF either would be increAs
cd we're the taxes removed.
BY taxing the manufacture and sal
of distilled spirils, many OF the me
chani, arts and sciences and the med
cal practice OF the country have to bes
the burtkeD, as much OF the spirit
manufactured IL used in the manufat
tare OF medicine, and the abolition c
the Internal revenue taxes weuld i'm
mediateiy relieve many Of the mani
featuring branches OF industry an
would cheaper medicines. As theI
would be no more liquor or tobaec
usei II these taxes were removed, wb.
theD, should they be continued, esp,
cisliy as they take from the regul;
channels of trade one hundred millio
of dollars and lock 1t U In the treasul
vaults, where IL 10 of no use but 4
political parties to quarrel over?